1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information collecting system capable of collecting (i.e., drawing out or extracting and processing) only that information among all the information available through an information network or the like which a user requests in a form desired by the user at a user-desired timing to thereby propose or output only the information requested by the user.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, as the information processing technology using an electronic computer and the technology for information communication via various communication networks are improved, multifarious data are accumulated as information and the accumulated information can be referred to from various locations. Recently, as a so-called personal computer communication system or electric mail service becomes popular, it is possible to acquire a vast amount of a very wide variety of information.
According to a conventional way of collecting information using a computer, a user accesses a database using a command language (e.g., key-word searching etc.) to extract the desired information from the database. The format of information present in an information source, such as a database, and the amount of information what is desired by the user. It is therefore considerably difficult to extract only the desired information for information collection. Unless the user accesses the information source, the user cannot acquire deadlock detection information therefrom. When the user neglects accessing the information source, he is likely to undesirably overlook useful information present in the information source. When the user constantly accesses every available information source to obtain information, the desired information is easily buried in a huge amount of multifarious information accessible from the information sources. This conventional method easily causes the user to overlook the desired information.
As described above, conventionally, every time a user wants to collect information, the user should access available information sources. Further, when the user neglects accessing information, the user may easily overlook useful information if such exists. Of all the information accumulated in a database or the like designed for non-individual, there is often very little information a user wants. The conventional information collection therefore undesirably requires tedious works of:
1) screening or filtering excess information from what is obtainable from an information source, and PA1 2) extracting only the desired information from the available information and processing it. PA1 a user interface unit for executing input/output information with respect to a user; PA1 an external interface unit for exchanging various types of information with an external unit; PA1 a user model determination unit for preparing at least one of user information for discriminating information required by the user, user information for defining an information proposition method, and user information for defining an information modification method in accordance with information input from the user interface unit; PA1 an information drawing-out unit for drawing out and modifying information input from the external interface unit in accordance with the user information acquired from the user model determination unit; PA1 an information proposition processing unit for converting information acquired by the information drawing-out unit into a proposition form for the user in accordance with the information acquired from the user model determination unit; and PA1 a control unit for receiving information from the individual units mentioned above, and executing control of the individual units and information exchange therewith in accordance with the received information. PA1 1) Permit a user to enter an information source from which information is to be collected, a condition concerning the desired information, a proposition method for that information, modifications to be added to the information, and the like. PA1 2) Automatically accesses information via the external interface unit or monitors automatically-receiving information, and selects only the user-desired information among the accessed or received information to thereby collect the information. PA1 3) Modifies the information collected by the user, if necessary. PA1 1) The information collection can be executed efficiently and without overlooking any information. PA1 2) Accurate information collection can be conducted effectively.